Try Line Fever – Cure Found?
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20th March 2010
Sawston V Welwyn 2’s (League match)
A much-improved performance from Sawston saw off the spirited Welwyn second team on Saturday. Following the early season dearth of tries and marginal victories the Sawston backline fired spectacularly at times against an organised and competitive team. Welwyn looked nothing like the opposition that ran out against Sawston at the garden city earlier in the season and showed a lot more aggression and experience.
In the previous weeks game against Datchworth, an early try from the opposition had made the afternoon’s job significantly more difficult. In fact it has been a trait of Sawston sides for a number of years to start slowly. This was a situation Sawston were keen to avoid this week, making it all the more surprising when following an excellent penalty from Francois, we scored from an intricate backs move. All in the first 10 minutes! Frenchy cut through the gap, offloaded to Jay and then a sweetly timed pass to Callum allowed him to finish a move that rarely comes off in practice but seems to be a certain try when used in a game.
Sawston continued the excellent start but it was obvious that the opposition were talented and dangerous. The scrum for example, normally a huge strength for Sawston, was not going to plan. Although this was hardly surprising considering that, without fear of exaggeration, the home team were giving away an average of 2-3st per man in the pack. In previous seasons such an obvious disadvantage would have resulted in collapse, but this year the forwards aren’t such a pushover. Bizarrely in some cases Sawston actually turned the ball over, wheeled the scrum or won it against the head?!? These are all terms I’ve heard people say but care very little about :-)
A superb break from Ben with 2 much larger guys hanging on to him provided the next try. Ben’s running around the fringes is a real strength and despite unreasonable calls for an offload from Robin and myself Ben finally got taken to ground. Robin was obviously the first to the breakdown shortly followed by me, although I essentially threw myself to the ground for a rest. Ash picked up the quick ball and surged through the gap in a way that only Ash could.
Another awesome backs try from the effervescent and tiring to watch Cookie, saw Sawston take a deserved 25-3 advantage. An advantage that was unfortunately quickly eroded.
All good teams, and Welwyn were a good team, will have periods of dominance in the game. And so it was, they came out in the second half with the wind and slope advantage that Sawston had enjoyed in the first half to mount a mini-comeback. Under the pressure, Sawston’s discipline let itself down again with Tim (!) sent to the bin for I’m not sure what, but it’s clear the team can’t continue playing every game with 14 men for 10 minutes every week!
It would be easy to criticise the team for having a bad 20 minutes but the positive to take from the period was how well the team responded. For the second week in a row the last 20 minutes were the teams strongest. The mobility and fitness of the smaller forwards started to show and re-established the teams authority. The nail in the coffin for Welwyn came when Sawston turned over a ball inside their own 5m and ran the length of the pitch over the next couple of phases. Unfortunately Cookie (or maybe Callum?!?) was tackled just short of the try line, but instead of wasting the opportunity the forwards secured the ball and provided Ash with the platform to release the backs. In the end I profited from everyone’s hard work to drive through a tired and drifting defence to score next to the posts.
Callum then added to his earlier score with a typically nonchalant jog to the corner and the match finished 38-19.
Any expectation that Welwyn, who were second bottom of the league before this game, would be a pushover was quickly expelled and this result is actually a lot better than it might initially look. Certainly the days of scoring only one or, if we were really lucky, 2 tries from forward drives and mauls are now behind us. Let’s be honest, forwards are not meant to score tries and they should only do so if the backs don’t. Earlier in the season the forwards were having to do both jobs as try line fever ravaged the Sawston back line. For now at least, things seem to be different.
Final Score 38-19
Team: Jay, Callum, Chris S, Dan O, Cookie, Frenchie, Ash, Pete, Wilf, James, Tim, Theo, Mad Ben, Dan F, Robin.
Subs: Tris for Frenchie.
Yellow Cards: Tim
Tries: Ash, Callum 2, Cookie, Dan O
Pens: Frenchie 3
Cons: Frenchie 2
Sawston Star Man
The match displayed both results of Chris’ gobbiness. One were his constant jabbering organised the defence well throughout the game and the other where he annoyed his opposite number so much he got flattened in one punch. Ordinarily the Sawston team would have acted angrily at a team-mate being punched but most just bought the guy a beer in the bar afterwards.
Apart from this Chris was excellent, along with the speed and elusive running of Cookie and Callum (who both also defended brilliantly), but the Sawston Star Man this week goes to Mad Ben. In a game where the backs dominated the score sheet and the opposition forwards dwarfed the home pack Ben’s clever play around the fringes and sheer work rate was obvious. Even when he moved to the wing with ten minutes to go he made two crucial thumping tackles that would surely have been potential tries.
The small print
My new more politically correct approach means there is no need for small print anymore, except perhaps to say that my account of the match is only as good as my memory of it. Given that all games are generally followed by heavy drinking I apologise for any inaccuracies in my recollection.
P.S. A prize* goes to the first person to write the name of the film that the accompanying image is taken from on the chat pages.
* Prize may not actually exist.
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